


Gold Filigree and Lace

by Entwinedlove



Series: Of Sparks and Spellfire [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Handmade's Tale-esque, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, marriage law
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2019-06-13 01:10:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15352914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Entwinedlove/pseuds/Entwinedlove
Summary: Bellatrix's death should have counted as a win. It didn't.





	Gold Filigree and Lace

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a moodboard I created for the HPrarepairnet's February Challenge "Be Mine"

They shouldn't have counted her death as a win. They shouldn't have. But they did.

Deep in the Department of Mysteries when they all battled around the Veil, Hermione had come to, surfacing through the pain of Dolohov's spell long enough to see Bellatrix about to cast a spell at Sirius. From where she lay on the floor in excruciating pain, Hermione's mind floundered for a spell to stop the other witch.

And she'd cast something.

 _Wingardium Leviosa_? _Mobilicorpus_? She couldn't have told anyone what it was but it had sent the witch half-flying, half-tumbling towards the Veil and right on through it.

She did not come through the other side.

The pain and confusion overcame Hermione and she succumbed to unconsciousness again.

It wasn't until she woke up in St Mungo's and she was told, vaguely, what Sirius thought might have happened that she realised that she might have actually killed the woman. It was a revelation that took all summer for her to come to terms with. She was a killer. Accidentally, yes, but still. The right side of the war had counted the death of Bellatrix Lestrange as a victory for their side.

One less Death Eater. One less Azkaban escapee.

* . * . *

It was during the next school year, Hermione, Harry and Ron's sixth year, that Death Eaters slipped into positions of power in the Ministry. Everything they had endured during Umbridge's reign of terror over Hogwarts the previous year was looked upon fondly when the Ministry started passing new laws and legislation.

When the Ministry demanded Muggle-borns be forced to wear identifying marks, Hogwarts complied and the following day Hermione woke to find every single item of clothing she owned dyed bright red.

When they demanded health screenings of Muggle-borns, on the premise that they might be more susceptible to Wizarding diseases that purebloods had already been exposed to in their youth, Hermione found herself queued with the seven other Muggle-borns in the infirmary to be tested for a wide range of things. When Hermione asked what those things were she was told not to ask questions.

When they demanded Muggle-borns be held to different standards—higher, impossible standards—in the workplace which resulted in dismissals for lack of competency, Hermione felt the backlash when she was barred from five of her nine classes. When she protested and argued she was silenced with a spell and served hours of detention instead.

It wasn't until later in the school year, after Katie Bell had been cursed and Ron had been poisoned, that the Ministry made it's last, and worst, demand. Muggle-borns would need a pureblood guardian, appointed by the Ministry. For any Muggle-born over the legal age of seventeen, that guardian would also serve as a spouse.

Hermione raged. Harry and Ron raged with her. She was silenced. They were told it wasn't their problem. Hermione took her concerns to Dumbledore, distant and evasive Dumbledore. She told him it was a Death Eater plot and he had to help her, even suggesting Professor Snape as her guardian, arguing that he was a Death Eater and must have an in with Voldemort. Dumbledore apologised and twinkled at her telling her not to worry before dismissing her out of hand.

Their legal guardian wouldn't be revealed to them until the appointed date.

Then Harry left the castle with Dumbledore. Death Eaters got into the castle, and Snape killed Dumbledore, leaving the school in disbelieving fear.

And then they were shipped back home. Before the Hogwarts Express entered the station at King's Cross it was stopped and boarded by a group of eight men and women. One sought her out.

Rodolphus Lestrange.

"I'm here for you, Miss Granger," he told her and when she refused to stand he grabbed her arm and dragged her.

"What about my parents? They're going to be looking for me at the station!" she shouted at him.

It wasn't until he Apparated her in front of a large country house that he answered her. "They won't be looking for you. They don't remember you exist at all." The words stunned her brain so much that she followed when he tugged on her hand and took her into his house.

She was provided food on golden filigree plates and more red clothes, proper witches robes and delicate lace underthings that she wanted to burn but didn't, and she finally asked about the legal aspects of her captivity.

"Captivity?" He chuckled, "What do you mean?"

"I am your prisoner."

"You are my wife."

"I will never consent to that."

"You don't have to; the contract is already filled out. All that's left to do is make it binding." He accompanied the words with a smouldering look down her body and it both creeped her out and excited her and she returned to her room more confused at her own behaviour than ever before.

When he knocked on her door an hour or so later he didn't wait for her to give him permission. He came in and handed her something. More lacy underthings, this time in black. "As much as I like red..." he trailed off and gestured to the bathroom for her to go change. She spent the five minutes he allowed her changing and running through every spell she could think of, wishing that she'd heard Dolohov's purple flame spell when he'd attempted to kill her last year.

After two knocks on the bathroom door, she emerged, determined to not feel, to not react, to not encourage him at all in what he was about to do. She expected him to just shove her down and get to it when he shocked her again.

"You are absolutely beautiful, Hermione." He ruined it a second later. "Thanks for killing Bellatrix; I hated that bitch." He paused before reaching for her, "Now come here, wife, and let's see if we can't make you scream." The words _in pain_ or _in pleasure_ were implied, of course.


End file.
